Hatch Preview

Love your iPhone, love your virtual pet in Hatch.

If you’re the type that would throw yourself under a bus to save your iPhone 5 from getting scuffed, here’s some bad news: your iPhone doesn’t love you. Your iPhone lacks a heart, soul, compassion, or even the warmth of running blood. Chances are good you already know this. Maybe you’ve even accepted it. But if you’re still holding onto the hope that your phone will become sentient, grow arms, and give you a hug, you’ll be happy to know that Hatch for iOS provides a happy medium: it lets your iPhone interact with you in the form of a rotund critter.

Hatch’s interface is evidently based off the care-and-feeding routine that Tamagotchis offered in the ’90s, but it’s more than another virtual pet (which is good, because let’s face it, most of us eventually left Greymon to starve at the bottom of our sock drawer). The pet at the center of Hatch is called a “Fugu,” a cute little guy that seems to interface itself with your iPhone. Basically, when you interact with your phone, your Fugu reacts and responds accordingly. When you touch the screen, it purrs. When you listen to music, it sways along to the beats. When you plug in your phone at the end of the day, it curls up and goes to sleep.

Of course, you can interact with your Fugu in traditional ways, too. Feed it, pet it, make it feel loved. It will make you feel loved in turn. Aww.

Hatch hits the App Store early next year. In the meantime, you can visit the game’s website and reserve an egg!